Festival > Media > Press Release 08.24.05
PTFF tributes silent screen starlet Greta Garbo
Centennial year of Hollywood actress to be noted at Port Townsend Film Festival.
Port Townsend, WA, August 24, 2005: Greta Garbo, the mysterious beauty who helped spur Hollywood's golden age, will be honored next month at the sixth annual Port Townsend Film Festival.
To commemorate what would be the actress' 100th birthday, the film festival will feature one of her silent films, host Classic Hollywood Portraits and offer collectors a chance to own early editions of a new Garbo postage stamp.
The actress' likeness is also prominently displayed on promotional material for the Sept. 23-25 festival.
This year's poster, with an image designed by Port Townsend Artist Linda Okasaki, shows the inside of a movie theatre in a red motif. A rising curtain reveals a black and white still of Garbo taken from "Flesh and the Devil."
The 1926 movie, in which Garbo co-stars with John Gilbert, will be the festival's featured silent film.
Port Townsend Film Festival buffs might remember acclaimed silent film composer Michael Mortilla who will accompany the film on piano. He played at the 2000 PTFF and, more recently, played at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
While Garbo made only 24 films in her 19-year career, she nevertheless has maintained an allure that has extended beyond the brief glimmer of fame enjoyed by many of her co-stars of the 1920s and 30s.
Choosing Garbo as a centerpiece was an easy choice for Peter Simpson, executive director of the film festival.
"This is her centennial year," he said. "And the postal service is releasing a stamp honoring Garbo the weekend of the festival."
In an arrangement with the U.S. Postal Service, 100 collectable second-day covers of the new Garbo stamp will be sold at the film festival starting Sept. 24.
The new stamp is being released concurrently with the Swedish postal service Sept. 23 as part of the 2005 Commemorative Stamp program.
Garbo, the daughter of unskilled laborers, was born in Stockholm on Sept. 18, 1905.
Her first acting role was a publicity short for the barber shop where she worked. At 17 she was offered a role in the Swedish film "Saga of Gosta Berling," which gained the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer agents in the United States.
After a short time stateside, Garbo became a superstar.
"She had a great mystique," Film Festival Executive Director Peter Simpson said. "She was one of the first actresses who didn't seem to be an extension of some character they played.
"Pola Negri seemed to be a vampire type and Mary Pickford in her curls was an early Shirley Temple.
"But there was something very real about Garbo."
In the late 1920s, talking movies began destroying the careers of many European-born actors, forcing MGM to delay Garbo's sound debut more than two years. She was offered the talking role in an adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie," where her accent was appropriate. A Variety magazine headline proclaimed after a sound test of the film, "Garbo Talks!"
At the start of World War II, the European market that provided much of the income for her films was largely shut off to distributors at MGM. With studio officials unable to meet her salary demands, Garbo announced her retirement.
Despite being largely reclusive from the public limelight for the next 50 years, Garbo's stardom remained.
Simpson overheard his parents talking about Garbo when he was 17.
"I remember asking them, 'What's a Garbo?'
"I found there's an allure and mystery to her that makes her fascinating to watch - probably more than listening to her."
The actress who abandoned her silver screen career died April 16, 1990 at the age of 84.
"She's still one of the most beautiful women I've ever set eyes on," Simpson said.
Movie buffs can get an early glimpse of Garbo soon by visiting the Silverwater Cafe, 237 Taylor St., where a Hollywood portraits gallery will be on display throughout September.
Event passes for the film festival are available online at www.ptfilmfest.com or by calling the festival office at 360-379-1333. All festival passes include access to film screenings, question and answer sessions and panel discussions on a first-come, first-seated basis. Each pass includes the Friday Night Taylor Street dinner provided by the Silverwater Café.
Day passes go on sale Sept. 1 and tickets for individual movies will be available throughout the festival.
The Port Townsend Film Festival is an annual event envisioned as "a film lover's block party celebrating great films and filmmakers." The event was spearheaded by a group of volunteers in 1999 and modeled after the popular film festival in Telluride, Co. Now in its sixth year, the Port Townsend Film Festival is constantly revising and re-visioning its programming in response to the availability of films throughout the world and cinematic responses to the topical issues of the day.